I think they're very important. I learned French myself because of a federal program that was designed to try to recruit future archeologists. After a summer of digging trenches and ending up finding an outhouse in the fields outside Fort Lennox, I did not pursue a career as an archeologist. I discovered that I was actually much more interested in Quebec than I was in archeology, and I spent the next two summers working on a similar student project in a mental hospital in the east end of Montreal. At the time, it was called l'Hôpital Saint-Jean-de-Dieu. It's now l'Hôpital Louis-Hippolyte-Lafontaine.
I think those exchanges, those projects, those programs that enable young Canadians to learn the other language, and to do so in the context of working in the other society, are extremely important. They changed my life.
I think one of the continuing challenges for immersion...I mean, I'm a big supporter. As a parent, I saw my sons go through immersion. As a result, I'm aware of the shortcomings as well as the strengths of immersion. I think one of the challenges for immersion is to actually connect the immersion program with a French-speaking society. There is always the problem that children are learning the provincial curriculum in translation as opposed to actually connecting with a French-speaking society. But I think immersion has flourished the way it has out of an enormous amount of devotion and conviction and hard work by parents, by teachers, by provincial governments, and by support through the official languages and education program, which has invested over the years. I think these initiatives are extremely important.